ECON 325
RADICAL ECONOMICS
D. Allen Dalton
Adjunct Professor
Boise State University
Fall 2013
Course Introduction
Syllabus
• Texts
• Expectations of Students
• Classroom Conduct and Expectations
• Grading
• Written Presentations
• Class Participation
• Exams
Syllabus
• Important Items
• Paper grading
• Open Source Internet sites
• Class Participation guidelines
• Resources
• Course Outline and Readings
What is Radical
Economics?
Catalog Course Description
Analysis of radical political economic thought
and its applications to the study of socioeconomic problems. Topics include Marxian
socialist economic theory, libertarianism,
anarchist theory, evolutionary economic
theory, and other radical models. Issues such as
imperialism, economic and social inequality, and
alienation will be considered.
Radical Political Economy
and
Heterodox Economic
Theory
Radical Political Economy
• Normative
• Critical of fundamental institutions
within society
• Proposals for fundamental
restructuring of basic institutions
Radical Political Economy
•
•
•
•
“Participatory Economics”
Market Socialism
Marxism
Anarchism
–
–
–
–
Syndicalism
Mutualism
Federated Communities
Anarcho-Capitalism
Heterodox Economics
• Positive
• Critical of the way in which
“mainstream” economics is done
– Lack of realism
– Hidden biases
• Alternative explanations for
economic action
Heterodox Economics
•
•
•
•
•
Austrian Economics
Post-Keynesian Economics
Social Economics
Institutional Economics
Sraffian-Kaleckian Economics
Why should one study Radical
Economics?
A.
Isn’t modern economic theory (as found in
textbooks and taught in courses) the apex
of the progressive development of the
science?
B.
As a positive science, don’t economists
shed false theories and adopt true
theories?
If A and B are true, why study heterodox
viewpoints?
Why should one study Radical
Economics?
“Recognize that many theories are shortlived and that they often reflect the
concerns of a particular time period, and
thereby come to a critical understanding of
contemporary theory.”
- Bruce Caldwell, Syllabus, History of
Economic Thought, EC 555, Fall 2003,
UNC-Greensboro.
Why should one study Radical
Economics?
“Kuhn demolished the…theory…that scientific thought
progresses patiently, one year after another
developing, sifting and testing theories, so that
science marches onward and upward…[E]conomics can
and has proceeded in contentious, even zig-zag
fashion, with later systemic fallacy sometimes
elbowing aside earlier but sounder paradigms, thereby
redirecting economic thought down a total erroneous
or even tragic path.”
- Murray Rothbard, Economic Thought before
Adam Smith, Edward Elgar, 1995, pp. ix-x.
Why should one study Radical
Economics?
“Marx’s critique of political economy is both an immanent
criticism of bourgeois economic theory, made by showing
that there is no connection between that theory’s
assumptions and the conclusions drawn from them, and a
fundamental criticism, which maintains that by assuming
its own economic relations to be natural and unchangeable
the whole of bourgeois economic theory fails, and must
fail, to comprehend its own society, thereby condemning
itself to misapprehend its own development as well as to
misconceive its state of being at any particular time.”
- Paul Mattick, “Marxism and Bourgeois
Economics,” in Marxism, last refuge of the
bourgeoisie?, Merlin Press, 1983, p. 3.
How to Study Radical
Economics?
Schools of Thought
The Notion of Schools of Thought
“A school within a science is a collection of
affiliated scientists who display a
considerably higher degree of agreement
upon a particular set of views than the
science as a whole displays… A school must
have a leader, because the consensus of its
members will normally be achieved and
maintained by major scientific
entrepreneurs.“
- George Stigler, The Economist as Preacher,
Basil Blackwell, 1982, p. 116.
The Notion of Schools of Thought
“…a genuine school in our sense: there was one
master, one doctrine, personal coherence;
there was a core; there were zones of
influence; there were fringe ends.”
- Joseph Schumpeter, History of
Economic Analysis, Oxford
University Press, 1954, p. 470.
My Biases
• (Anti-)Politics
– Individualist Anarchist
• Economics
– Austrian Eclectic
• Political Economy
– Free Market Anti-Capitalist